Club hosts New York Mets at Globe Life Park in Arlington, April 3 and 4

Team opens Cactus League play on Wednesday, March 4

Arlington, TX – The Texas Rangers are scheduled to play 34 spring training games in 2014, including 30 Cactus League contests. The club released its complete spring training schedule and pricing on Tuesday.

The schedule includes a pair of exhibition games with the New York Mets at Globe Life Park in Arlington to close the spring schedule on Friday, April 3 (7:05 p.m. CT) and Saturday, April 4 (1:05 p.m. CT). It will mark the first exhibition game in Arlington versus a major league team since the Rangers hosted at the Kansas City Royals on April 2, 2010. Ticket information will be announced at a later date for those games.

As previously announced, the club’s spring training schedule also includes two games with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third annual H-E-B Big League Weekend series at the Alamodome in San Antonio on Friday, March 20 (7:05 p.m. CT) and Saturday, March 21 (1:05 p.m. CT). Tickets for those games are now on sale at www.bigleagueweekend.com.

Texas’ 30-game Arizona schedule features 16 contests at Surprise Stadium/Billy Parker Field. The Rangers will be the home team for 15 of those games and will be the visiting club for one contest against the 2014 A.L. champion Kansas City Royals, who share the Surprise complex with Texas. Those two teams will play three times overall in Surprise in 2015, opening the spring schedule with consecutive games: Wednesday, March 4 (Rangers home game), which is the Surprise Sundancers Charity Game and Thursday, March 5 (Royals home game). Texas will be the home team for the final spring meeting between the clubs on Monday, March 30.

In addition, the Rangers will host the Milwaukee Brewers twice and play the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland A’s, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, and Seattle Mariners once each in Surprise. At the other Cactus League parks, the team has two games with the Angels and Reds and one each with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cubs, White Sox, Rockies, Dodgers, Brewers, A’s, Padres, Giants, and Mariners.

Texas will play night games in Surprise with Cincinnati on Monday, March 23 and with Colorado on Thursday, March 26, both at 6:05 p.m. MT. All other Rangers games in Surprise will be 1:05 p.m. MT starts.

2015 individual ticket prices for Texas Rangers games at Surprise Stadium: Lower Dugout–$28.00; Upper Dugout–$25.00; Infield–$24.00; Plaza–$18.00; and Lawn–$8.00. Full season, half season, and 7-game ticket packages are also available as well as group ticket packages. Parking is free to all games at Surprise Stadium.

Season ticket packages go on sale Monday, December 15, and information is available by calling 623-222-2222 or by going to texasrangers.com.

Spring training individual tickets for 2015 may be purchased in one of four ways:

BY MAIL beginning Monday, December 15. Fans can go to surprisespringtraining.com to download an order form.

The Rangers have officially named Michael Young as special assistant to general manager Jon Daniels. It is a title that Ivan Rodriguez, Darren Oliver and Greg Maddux hold. But Young has already taken an active role in the organization and was among the club officials who interviewed managerial candidates in October. This is not going to be a ceremonial position.

the Rangers weren’t able to reach a quick agreement with free agent pitcher Colby Lewis. He has told the Rangers that he intends to test the market. The Rangers are holding open the door for his possible return but he will be free to talk money with other teams as early as Tuesday.

Maddux and Hawkins return for a seventh season in their respective roles, the longest-tenured members of the staff. Magadan returns for his third season as hitting coach while Jones will be in his position for a second straight year.

Buechele, 53, will be a major league coach for the first time. He has spent the past six seasons as a manager in the Rangers farm system, serving at High-A Bakersfield (2009), Double-A Frisco (2010-13), and Triple-A Round Rock (2014). As a minor league manager, Buechele guided his clubs to postseason berths in four of his six seasons. Originally selected by Texas in the fifth round of the 1982 June draft out of Stanford University, the former third baseman played 1334 games over 11 seasons in the majors with Texas (1985-91, 1995), Pittsburgh (1991-92), and Chicago-NL (1992-95). Buechele still ranks second in Rangers history with 835 games at third base, trailing only Buddy Bell (901).

Ortiz, 45, will be in his first major league coaching position, although he has spent extended stints with the big league club as a catching instructor the past few years. Next year will be his 10th season in the Texas organization, having served as hitting coach at Rookie-level Spokane (2006-08), manager (2009) and hitting coach (2010) at Low-A Hickory, manager for the Arizona League Rangers (2011), and as the farm system’s catching coordinator (2011-14). He also managed Ponce in the Puerto Rican Winter League after the 2012 season. Ortiz played 93 games over four major league seasons with Kansas City (1998, 2000-01) and Texas (2002).

Tingler, who turns 34 next month, will be in his first major league position. He has spent eight seasons with Texas, including the past three (2012-14) as field coordinator for the minor league system. Tingler also served as the club’s coordinator of instruction for both Arizona and Dominican Republic operations in 2011 after three campaigns as a manager for club’s Dominican Summer League squad (2008-09) and Arizona League team (2010). In each of his three seasons as a manager, each club finished in first place. He began his coaching career in the Dominican as a hitting coach in 2007 after a four-season minor league career in the Toronto (2003-05) and Texas (2006) organizations.

TEXAS RANGERS 2015 MAJOR LEAGUE COACHING STAFF

Manager – Jeff Banister

Bench coach – Steve Buechele

Pitching coach – Mike Maddux

Hitting coach – Dave Magadan

First base coach – Hector Ortiz

Third base coach – TBD

Bullpen coach – Andy Hawkins

Field coordinator – Jayce Tingler

Asst. hitting coach – Bobby Jones

TRANSACTIONS/ROSTER UPDATE: Right-handed pitchers Nate Adcock and Alfredo Figaro, along with infielder Ed Lucas, have all cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Round Rock. Adcock has turned down the assignment to become a free agent.

With free agents Scott Baker, Neal Cotts, and Colby Lewis all coming off the major league roster Thursday, plus the Rangers declining the 2015 club option on Alex Rios to make him a free agent, there are now 31 players on the team’s 40-man roster.

The Rangers have made an opening offer to free agent pitcher Colby Lewis and are awaiting feedback from his agent Alan Nero. One factor in the negotiations is Nero also represents manager Joe Maddon, who has opted out of his contract with the Rays, is also a free agent and has become the hottest topic in baseball during the World Series.

The Rangers desire to get something done with Lewis reflects their determination to address the starting rotation as the top priority this winter. The Rangers are also engaging a number of teams in trade discussions concerning starting pitching.

Although this is a deep free agent class for starting pitching – a list that includes Jon Lester, James Shields and Max Scherzer – the Rangers are more likely to explore the trade market rather than spend big money on the free agent market.

The Rangers other priority is to fill out their coaching staff. On Friday the Rangers are expected to announce at least some positions including the return of pitching coach Mike Maddux and hitting coach Dave Magadan. The Rangers are also expected to announce the promotion of Steve Buechele to bench coach and Hector Ortiz as the catching instructor to replace Bengie Molina, who is not expected to return.

Hitting coach Dave Magadan is expected to be back with the Rangers. The club has not officially announced that yet but those are the indications under a solar eclipse. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that he is no longer a candidate in Oakland..

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